DigitalGenius, a London-based startup that makes artificial intelligence for customer service centers, announced today that it has raised $14.75 million.

The company said it will use the Series A funding to expand its reach and further develop its AI products. The round was led by Global Founders Capital, and it included participation from new investors MMC Ventures and Paua Ventures, as well as previous investors Salesforce Ventures, Runa Capital, RRE Ventures, Lumia Capital, Compound and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Combined with DigitalGenius’ initial financing, this brings the startup’s total funding to date to more than $26 million.

Founded in 2013, DigitalGenius provides AI tools that integrate with a company’s existing customer service software to improve the speed and quality of their customer interactions. Last year, the startup launched its Human+AI platform, which assists human agents by automating routine conversations while also providing relevant information for each customer’s issue.

Human+AI uses a neural network that has been trained by applying machine learning to a company’s chat logs and historial customer service transcripts. From this data, the neural network learns to recognize recurring customer problems and the solutions that are frequently provided by human agents.

For example, if a customer messages an airline saying she forgot a personal item on a plane, the AI might respond with instructions on how to locate the airline’s lost and found department. The Human+AI can also analyze customer messages for additional information, including the urgency of their request, the customer’s apparent mood and so on.

Mikhail Naumov, chief strategy officer at DigitalGenius, said last year that mobile messaging and social media have changed the customer service landscape, significantly increasing workloads for contact centers. Naumov added that businesses would normally have to retrain or hire more employees to meet the demand, but he said that with Human+AI, “companies can now transform their approach to easily meet the drastic increases in customer service volumes.”

Customer service became a major focus for the AI industry over the last year, and several startups received funding to fill that niche. San Francisco-based startup Augment Solution Inc., which offers its own AI platform that assists human agents with intelligent answers, raised $5 million in September, and Solvvy Inc. raised $12 million in October for its AI that answers common questions.

Photo: DigitalGenius